Why Israel Voted For Life- The Real Story of Israel’s 2019 Elections

The Israeli 2019 elections are over, and in spite of all the nonsense in the garbage press, there’s only one major reason why it turned out as it did. In the end, Israel voted for life, plain and simple.

The results are as follows, but basically they can be understood as the collapse of the Israeli Left and a final verdict on the Left’s worst mistake… Oslo and the fallacy of the so called ‘two state solution.’

Bibi Netanyahu has won a record breaking fifth term as Israel’s prime minister. And the new government he will form will likely be further to the right, more nationalistic and much more stable then the current one with at least 65 seats or more. They may even get more because Israeli law specifies that those parties who fail to make the vote threshold (3.5%) must distribute their votes to another party.

The Blue and White Party, with former Labour General Benny Ganz and his co-chairman former TV Talking head Yair Lapid were supposed to win and oust Netanyahu. A lot of the Israeli press was touting them, since basically, the Blue and White party consisted of politicians who favored Oslo and the two state ‘land for peace’ solution. Ganz has always been noted for his hostility to Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria and Lapid’s sole claim to fame aside from his TV antics was that he was once finance minister as part of the usual Israeli political horse trading. I remember asking one of my Israeli friends in Lapid knew anything about finance.His response? “Well, I think maybe he knows how to use an ATM.’ Actually a pretty accurate answer as it turned out. In the end, they got 34 seats, almost all of them based on votes from Tel Aviv, which is almost akin to New York in terms of its politics. I doubt the Blue and White will be around for the next election. The entire Left coalition got perhaps 50 seats or so, including the Arab parties.

 
Israel’s Leftist Labour Party, which ruled the country for decades is essentially out of the picture. They won all of six seats in the new 120 member Knesset. The EU funded ultra Left Meretz Party had a grand total of four seats.

All the polls of the 2019 Israeli Elections had Blue and White leading Israel’s Left to victory.The press even trumpeted Israel’s attorney general’s last minute ‘indictments’ of Netanyahu for corruption, things that in most other countries would not even be questionable. Like our own president, Netanyahu has a lot of haters on the Left. Among his other sins, it was MIT grad Netanyahu who as finance minister rebuilt Israel’s economy by privatizing a number of things the government shouldn’t have been owning and encouraging entrepreneurship, pushing joint government and private industry projects, and generally turning Israel from a quasi-Socialist state with a struggling economy into the economic powerhouse it is today. The Left has never forgiven him.

So why did he win?

To understand that, you have to review both the past and the recent present.


The mantra of the Israeli Left was always 'land for peace.' The idea with Oslo was that this would work out like the deal with Egypt. There would be peace, and Israel's diplomatic status and image with foreign countries and the UN would be improved. Actually, that deal never really worked that way. Only since Egypt's Al Sissi took over has there been real co-operation between the two governments, based on a mutual distaste for Islamist terrorism.

The Camp David Accord was different because Anwar Sadat really wanted peace. Yasser Arafat was a Soviet trained terrorist who had no intention of it. It was President Bill Clinton who really created Oslo and gifted Arafat with his own kleptocrat fiefdom. Mr.Bill loved Yasser. He had him to the White house more than any other foreign dignitary, even though he knew Yasser Arafat had ordered two US diplomats tortured to death in the Sudan. And after Mr. Bill intervened in the Israeli elections to get Labour's Yitzhak Rabin elected, the time was right. Arafat, huddled away in Tunis with his small group of thugs was given territory to have as an autonomous region (not a sovereign state) in exchange for renouncing terrorism, avoiding incitement to violence and embracing peaceful co-existence.

Needless to say, he did nothing of the kind. The ensuing bloodbath and suicide bombings mounted up as the most appalling atrocities were committed while Rabin and the Labour Party talked about sacrifices for peace. And Israel's seeking peace resulted in even worse foreign relations with the EU and UN, demanding more and more concessions of Israel and only Israel.

The same thing happened after Gaza. The UN, President George W. Bush and his Roadmap and the EU all promised Gaza would strengthen Arafat as a gesture for peace, and that Gaza would never be allowed to become a security problem for Israel. None of those guarantees were worth the paper they were written on either.

Most Israelis realize now that the entire 'Oslo/Land for peace/ Two state solution'  nonsense is and always was a total fallacy. you can't allow a den of rattlesnakes or a pack of rabid dogs to live in your backyard and expect to have peace. It doesn't work that way. And tthat's really what Israel's 2019 elections were about.

Netanyahu announcing that he's going to annex the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and that he is committed to make them part of Israel is a major change. Among other things, it means those communities will be under Israeli law rather than military law. It gives them permanency.
Likewise, Netanyahu finally coming up with the courage to say there will be no 'Palestinian State' is also a major step. There's no reason for one and never has been, especially since Jordan gave these Arabs citizenship back in 1954 and most of these 'Palestinians'   still have it, including Mahmud Abbas. 'Palestine' has received more aid money than any other developing nation in history. What is there to show for it except some fat bank accounts in the EU and the Emirates? Nothing except a terrorist squat with murder for hire as its chief export.

The  Israeli 2019 elections were the  electorate finally saying 'Ani lo friar'*  once and for all. Recent terrorist attacks, including the brutal murder and rape of a nineteen-year- old girl and the murder of a Rabbi with ten children definitely help solidify this sentiment.

Another reason for Netanyahu's win is his diplomatic successes.  His relationships with the UN and some of the nations in the  the EU are a problem , but the relations to the UN and these particular EU Nations with any Israeli leader would be the same. They have their far Left and a lot of Muslim migrants to appease.

But Israel under Netanyahu has fostered very close relationships with Russia's Putin, India's Modi,  Brazil's Bolsanaro, numerous African nations, Australia's Scott Morrison, Egypt's Al Sissi and other Arab nations and of course, our own President Trump, Vice President Pence and the Republicans in congress. Ganz had zero foreign policy experience, and neither did Lapid.

And of course, Israel's economy remains robust.

So how will this affect America? In several ways.

First, it will definitely affect President Trump's deal of the century peace plan if it even gets aired. Since I doubt Netanyahu wouldn't have told President Trump what he had in mind beforehand, and the president has already confirmed that his plan does not require a 'Palestinian' state.That makes president Trump smarter than any President since Reagan, who said exactly the same thing about the necessity of such a thing.

I doubt this doesn't change a few things. But since Mahmoud Abbas has already said no to anything Trump comes up with, it's probably a dead issue.

Second, the recent anti-semitism coming from almost every Democrat running for president in 2020 and those of anti-semitic Democrat members of congress is going to be one more issue to divide things. Thanks mostly to Barack Hussein Obama, this stuff is now out in the open as the Democrat Party follows the trend set by the UK's Labour Party. The only Democrat presidential hopeful to go to AIPAC's convention was Cory Booker, who actually has a Jewish constituency in New Jersey. The rest boycotted it.  I expect this to continue as Israel haters  like Beto O'Rourke, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg among others fight for the nomination. Buttigieg in  particular is the craftiest of the three, masking his contempt for Israel by attacking Netanyahu and thus claiming that attacking Israel's democratic choice 'isn't anti-semitism'  and pushing for that same old two state nonsense. I wonder if Buttigieg knows hoow gays are treated in 'Palestine?'

Beto actually called Netanyahu a racist.  BTW, anyone who thinks Mayor Buttigieg is the sort of person you want running America should check what he's done to South Bend, Indiana as mayor. The media's hushing this up, but I have a feeling it's going to come out as things heat up.

American Jews are going to become more divided...until they wake up. For many Jews in the past, especially those closest in age to the Holocaust, Israel was a major issue. It isn't anymore for a significant number of today's Jews, for various reasons.

There are a number of things responsible for the change.  As Israel went from a socialist, left leaning country to a more capitalist, nationalist state with a strong military most Israelis not only took pride in but served in it, many Jews who already leaned hard to the Left became estranged.

A large part of this increasing trend was the coverage Israel received from the media here in America. The New York Times and the alphabet networks were especially dishonest and repugnant, as was the BBC in Britain. Aside from demonizing Israel, they also sold the 'Palestinian' cause to these young Jews with the preconceived script of the Arab David versus the Israeli Goliath...carefully avoiding the vicious attacks on 'Goliath.' They also popularized the myth of Israel as 'occupier' and an 'apartheid state' committing 'war crimes.' This was the strategy of the Big Lie on steroids.

On universities where the Left had control (that is, most of them) Jewish students were made to feel uncomfortable by both radical professors and anti-Israel student groups. A great number of Mid East studies Departments were essentially bought by the Saudis for the express purpose of giving an academic luster to the 'anti-zionist ' agenda. This propaganda was especially well received by a number of black and other minority students, adding pressure to Jews to virtue signal by damning Israel and become part of the in crowd.

Finally, the nomination of Barack Hussein Obama served as a test for those 'good Jews' to virtue signal and vote for the first black president, even to the point of ignoring his many anti-semitic and anti-Israel mentors. His establishing J Street with the financial backing of anti-Israel billionaire George Soros gave many of these Jews a banner to march under to pretend they were pro-peace no matter how many of their fellow Jews the 'Palestinians' brutally murdered. These Jews simply made a choice - Obama over Israel. Not even Obama's appeasement of the genocidal Iranian regime made any difference. Many of them have made the same choice today...the resistance and the newly anti-Israel Democrat Party over pro-Israel President Trump. Will they continue to make that ultimately self hating and suicidal error? Time will tell. In the UK, it took awhile before Britain's Jews awoke to what Labour had become  and by then it was pretty much too late.

Interestingly enough, as a number of young American Jews go left, associate themselves with the increasingly anti-Israel Democrat Party  and distance themselves from Israel and religious observance, their contemporaries in Israel are doing exactly the reverse, getting closer to religion and moving right politically.

There's a reason for that.

While these young Israelis were too young to experience the signing of Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995, these younger Israelis lots of them religiously observant to some degree, grew up with the consequences. They grew up with the so-called Second Intifada, which began in September 2000. they saw their friends and contemporaries murdered by Israel's 'peace partners and saw the government doing little about it. They went to the funerals of their friends murdered by homicide bombers and in many case experienced them firsthand, even though they survived.

Trust me, when you experience something like that and what it looks like, sounds like and smells like, it changes your entire perspective about 'land for peace' and 'the two state solution.' When you see parents sobbing over their dead children, when you see grown men in tears picking up their dead bodies while  you can actually hear the 'Palestinians' celebrating this in the distance all the rhetoric you've been fed by left wing politicians, the media and what's known as the international community is revealed as the horse manure it really is. You never forget. Never.

The Israeli Left is essentially history now.  The most Netanyahu's new government is going to allow is a small enclave in Area A where the majority of Arabs live, a place where they lack statehood but can run their lives domestically. and frankly, I wouldn't even give them that much. A 'Palestinian' enclave would simply be a cancer in an otherwise healthy area. Most of these people are Jordanian citizens, including Mahmoud Abbas. There's no reason they shouldn't return there, where they can mouth their hatred of Jews to their heart's content without hurting anyone but themselves.

Israel has finally gotten out of it's defensive crouch. There won't be any more cringing over the latest nonsense from the UN or questioning over the ownership of the land from the river to the sea, land not only promised to the Jews by the Almighty but by the League of Nations Palestine mandate, its reaffirmation by Article 80 of the UN Charter and the San Remo accords that even the Arabs agreed to. It's time to end this.

Selah.

*'I'm no sucker'







Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, Breitbart.Com, Yediot and other publications.
Follow him on Twitter here and on Facebook here.

The Jerusalem Temple Mount Crisis - Why it Erupted, How To Solve It

Recent events continue show exactly why the peace process in the Middle East is dead on arrival right now, at least where Israel and the Palestinian authority is concerned. The Jerusalem Temple Mount crisis is the latest example of Mahmoud Abbas's destructive tactics in attempting to sabotage it and stay relevant.

As I pointed out in an earlier article,the Mideast 'peace process' is currently DOA and President Trump is strongly considering simply pulling out of it as a bad job. Moreover, the entire effort was part of a much larger program, creating a strategic bloc between the most powerful Sunni States of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates (and possibly a newly formed, U.S. backed Kurdistan) with Israel to defeat ISIS and al-Qaeda, oppose Iran and reaffirm U.S. leadership in the region.

Mahmoud Abbas has essentially torpedoed that arrangement at least as far as Israel and the Palestinian Authority is concerned. Although the larger program of a strategic bloc composed of Israel and the Sunni states will probably survive.

Abbas did it with the same tactics he's always used. He refused, as he always has,  to make any concessions to Israel, especially when it came to his using international donor funds to reward convicted terrorist murderers and their families, or to stop the incitement of the murder of Jews in the mosques, media and schools the PA controls. The meeting he had with U.S. special adviser Jared Kushner ended in a shouting match, with Abbas saying that continuing to pay terrorists and their families out of donor aid was 'my social responsibility.'

Next, Abbas went to one of the few places where he's taken seriously, the UN, and got UNESCO to pass a resolution that declared that all the Jewish holy sites, including the Western Wall were 'occupied Palestinian territory' and renaming them with Arabic names, something that had no practical effect except to inflame Israelis. And finally, he once again used the al-Aqsa Mosque to inflame tensions.

The first incident involved two Palestinians who smuggled weapons into the mosque itself, not just 'the compound' as is being reported. They sneaked out of the mosque and murdered two Israeli police in cold blood, literally shooting them in the back. The two killers were later killed in a shootout with Israeli police. Palestinians inside the mosque and in the compound responded with rocks, bottles, knives and sticks. One of them was blown up by his own Molotov cocktail. The riot that ensued was so violent that the police actually had to storm the mosque to restore order.

The police then searched the mosque. inside they found a number of weapons hidden, knives, axes, firearms, gas bombs and ammo.

After removing the weapons, the Israelis came up with the solution of installing metal detectors. The Vatican and the main mosque in Mecca have similar equipment installed. Abbas used that as an excuse to incite and actually fund more riots with financial incentives, and to involve Jordan's King Abdullah. Per an arrangement made with Jordan by Israel's Labor government after Jordan attacked Israel in 1967, a Jordanian religious administrative body known as the Waqf has custody of the al-Aqsa mosque at the top of the Temple Mount. The Waqf has allowed stones to be stockpiled for Arabs to throw down and attack Jews worshiping at the Kotel, the Western Wall on more than one occasion. Incendiary sermons at the mosque are common.

Israel's relationship with Jordan is said to be peaceful, but it's actually an extremely frigid armistice, a ceasefire. Anti-semitic rants are quite common in Jordan's parliament, and there is little if any tourism or security cooperation. The Jordanians recently gave early release just this last March to Ahmed al-Daqamseh, a Jordanian soldier whose heroic deed was gunning down and murdering 7 Israeli schoolgirls who were on a field trip on Israel's side of the border. He received a hero's welcome in Jordan upon his release. We could discuss what kind of society it is that celebrates a child murderer as a hero, but I digress. The point is that Jordan is no 'ally' of Israel and would definitely attack Israel if it had the military capacity to do so.

King Abdullah is not exactly popular in his own country, so he took advantage of Mahmoud Abbas's opening to bolster that approval by mouthing a number of incendiary remarks of his own. That led to a terrorist attack on Israel's embassy in Amman, which the Jordanian police were supposedly guarding. One of the attackers who entered the embassy attempted to stab an Israeli security guard and wound up being shot and killed in response. Jordan insisted on 'interrogating' the Israeli guard, and that word has a very different meaning in a country like Jordan than it does in say, America or other countries where what's considered the rule of law is quite different.

The Israeli staff inside the embassy refused give the Jordanians the security guard, and were essentially blockaded in their embassy. A couple of days later, an arrangement was apparently made to allow the embassy staff to return to Israel with the security guard. In exchange, Israeli PM Netanyahu agreed to remove the metal detectors from the entrance to al-Aqsa and investigate the incident at the embassy, which still remains empty as I write this.

As word from one of my notorious little birdies has it, the Trump Administration had a major part in resolving this.

Meanwhile, the embassy in Amman is still empty, and King Abdullah and Mahmoud Abbas are still mouthing incendiary remarks and threatening war. In the case of Abbas, this incitement resulted in the hideous murder of a Jewish family in the village of Neve Tsuf (Halamish) who were sitting down to a Friday night Sabbath meal and celebrating a Shalom Zachar (celebration of the birth of a boy). The killer, who climbed over the security fence knocked on the door and was admitted, since the family thought it was a neighbor. Instead, Omar al-Abed rushed through the door with a knife and murdered the grandfather, 70-year old Yosef Salomon, his daughter 46-year old Chaya Salomon, and his son, 36-year old Elad Salomon (HY"D.) The grandmother, 68-year old Tova Salomon, was seriously wounded. The carnage would have been even worse if not for some quick thinking by daughter-in-law Michal Salomon, who rushed her five children into a room, locked the door and called the police. An off-duty soldier neighbor shot the terrorist through a nearby window, wounding him.

 

Omar al-Abed will receive the equivalent of $3,000 per month from Abbas, courtesy of your tax dollars. That's a very hefty sum in 'Palestine.' No wonder Omar's mom is so proud of him!

Reflecting on this, we can come to a few unavoidable conclusions.

First, Israel's attempt to share holy sites with Muslims doesn't work. It hasn't worked on the Temple Mount. It hasn't worked at the The Me'arat HaMachpela, the Cave of the Patriarchs where the Jews returned during their Holy Days to find that the Muslims had urinated and defecated in the area used to store the Jew's Torah scrolls and decked out the designated Jewish area with Hamas flags and anti-Semitic grafitti. It hasn't worked with Rachel's Tomb, which the Arabs firebombed. It hasn't worked with Joshua's Tomb or Joseph's Tomb. It  has always resulted in violence, murder and the most obscene desecration and destruction imaginable.

Second, Israel will never be able to live in peace with the Palestinian Authority, especially as long as Fatah is running things. And the best that can be expected of Jordan is a frigid ceasefire.

Third, both King Abdullah of Jordan and Mahmoud Abbas can be depended on to use the Temple Mount as a tool for incitement of violence at will. No matter what Israel does or doesn't do, they will always rant about 'changing the status quo' and 'trying to control the area' and 'disrespecting Muslim rights' whenever they need to use such rhetoric as a weapon against Israel.

And Fourth, Israel is never going to cede any part of Jerusalem to the Arabs. The last time Arabs controlled the area, in 1948, 28 historic synagogues were burned to the ground, Jewish tombstones from the Mount of Olives were used as pavement and the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism was used as a garbage dump.

But there's actually a simple solution for this situation. Israel is always being accused of changing the status quo on the Temple Mount, a status quo that really doesn't work anyway as far as keeping things peaceful goes.So it's better to just call Jordan and Abbas's bluff by doing just that.

First, the Jordanian Waqf should be sent packing. There's no question but that they were complicit in the recent violence as well as violence that has occurred in the past. Instead Israel needs to appoint a committee of Israeli Arabs or perhaps even a single commissioner as a liaison for matters regarding maintenance of the al-Aqsa mosque. And the authority of that committee or commissioner should be limited to just that, discussions of necessary maintenance.

And finally, the entire Temple Mount area should be closed to all, Jew and Muslim alike. No one goes up there except for needed maintenance or once in a while,a few carefully vetted scholars for scientific or historical research.

This solution would effectively neutralize the weapon King Abdullah and Abbas now hold. There would undoubtedly be some disturbances at first, and the usual hate-filled rhetoric. But that already exists now, at Abbas's whim. Since it's difficult to accuse Israel of 'Judaizing the Temple Mount' when Jews aren't allowed there either, eventually such things lose their impact. And there would certainly no need for metal detectors!

Unfortunately, Muslims have amply shown that to them,  the al-Aqsa mosque is a political tool rather than a place of peaceful worship. And as far as I'm concerned, Jews shouldn't be treading on that holy ground either. So close it down to all prayer, and let it rest in peace...until there is true peace.

Britain Suspends Aid to Palestinians Over Terrorism Funding

Britain's The Sun is reporting that the UK has suspending millions of pounds in foreign aid payments to the Palestinian Authority because of 'serious allegations' that the money is being used to fund terrorism.

Britain's International Development Secretary Priti Patel has ordered a freeze pending an investigation, after furious British MPs demanded action following revelations that UK aid supposedly paying for civil servants in Gaza was being transferred to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Aside from funding “salaries” for families of suicide bombers, convicted vehicle terrorists and knife wielding killers attacking Israelis, various 'operations' are being bankrolled.In one instance, a Hamas master bomber was allegedly given £100,000 by the PLO.

The Department for International Development has admitted previously that the PLO makes “social welfare” provisions for terrorist prisoners and their families but at th etime, denied that UK funds are being used this way.

But according to The Sun, the Department has finally conceded that many of the so-called civil servants were actually involved in terrorism,or as the Department put it, ' doing other jobs' while receiving UK taxpayers’ funds.

The decision affects £25 million in cash is being withheld this year – a third of the total aid sent to the Palestinian Authority. While the majority supposedly goes to charities in the region, there have also been repeated instances of these funds being diverted as well since a lot of these charities employ local Arabs as staff members and any real accounting is difficult.

The Palestinian Authority is perpetually asking for more donor aid, claiming to be broke. Yet Mahmoud Abbas continues to spend six percent of the PA’s annual budget to pay $4.5 million a month to jailed terrorists, another $6.5 million to their families, $1.2 million to Sufa Arafat as a 'pension' so she can live a luxurious lifestyle in the ritziest part of Paris and $16 million on a brand new presidential compound. And that doesn't count Abbas's annual salary of $12 million, or the money he and his Fatah cronies siphon off the aid money for themselves.*

Senate Republicans introduced legislation just days ago to cut off all financial aid to 'Palestine' until the Secretary of State certifies that the Palestinian Authority is no longer using aid money to reward and finance terrorists.

Good luck with that, since Abbas has admitted he's repeatedly lied about the matter!

Still these are positive steps, particularly with the UK. Can it be that the world's oldest running con game is finally starting to come to an end?

We'll see.



*Both Mohammed Rashid, Arafat's former finance chief and Mahmoud Dahlan, former PA security chief have publicly accused Abbas of embezzling $3.1 billion U.S.

Obama Judicial Appointees: 'Murder Jews, No Harm, No Foul'

As the AP reported, a three judge panel for the U.S. 2nd District Court of Appeals tossed out a $654 million jury verdict for damages against the Palestinian Authority and the PLO today for terrorist attacks it coordinated and sponsored in Israel that killed or wounded Americans.

The court's ruling was based on a very curious interpretation of the law involved, the U.S. Anti Terrorism Act, which allows American victims of foreign terrorist attacks to sue state sponsors of terrorism in U.S. courts for damages.

The original verdict was the result of a case called Sokolow v. PLO that was tried by jury in the Federal District Court in Manhattan and was brought by American victims and survivors of six terrorist attacks in Israel between 2001 and 2004. The evidence showed clearly that not only had the PLO under Yasser Arafat planned, financed, and executed the attacks but that it continued to pay generous stipends to the perpetrators and their families.

The 2nd Circuit refused to allow any of the evidence linking the Palestinian Authority and the PLO to the attacks and the attackers to be heard, although as a sop, they admitted the attacks occurred and were 'horrendous'. What they based their ruling on is that Palestine is not a state and therefore, the Federal District Court lacked jurisdiction to rule against them!

Now, the PLO and the Palestinian authority have always said that they're a sovereign state ever since Oslo and have always successfully insisted in being treated as one by the U.S. and other entities. They have their own flag, a national anthem, their own military, a presidential compound, a capitol, they belong to international organizations and institutions like UNESCO and the International Red Crescent whose rules prohibit non-states from joining, and they have what passes for a parliament, courts and laws.

In America, they have diplomatic missions in New York and Washington and lobbyists working on their behalf, they have bank accounts in America, and they receive huge amounts of foreign aid from the Obama Administration both directly and through a UN entity, UNRWA. But Judge John G. Koeltl, the Obama appointee who wrote the opinion on the case said the panel found that Palestine, when it comes to being sued is not a state, that the attacks didn't specifically target Americans and were 'fortuitous' (a very curious use of that word, by the way) and that according to the judges on this panel there was no link between the PLO's activities in America and their activities in the Middle East even though Arafat ruled both groups and appointed and hired their representatives in America. Or as the judges put it, there's no evidence showing the attacks "resulted from their actions that did occur in the United States."

Apparently these judges also believe that if a customer is shot and killed during a bank robbery or a motorist is killed by a drunk driver's negligence, the victim's family have no right to a civil suit for damages. It was just 'fortuitous.'

That judgment also ignored extensive evidence that shows that at least part of the funding for the attacks and stipends for convicted killers and their families came from money siphoned off from American aid obtained through the efforts of PLO, Palestinian personnel and lobbyists here in America...which the panel refused to hear.

Even more interesting, Judge Koeltl wrote in his decision: "The overwhelming evidence shows that the defendants are 'at home' in Palestine, where they govern. Palestine is the central seat of government for the PA and PLO. The PA's authority is limited to the West Bank and Gaza, and it has no independently operated offices anywhere else. All PA governmental ministries, the Palestinian president, the Parliament, and the Palestinian security services reside in Palestine," the ruling said.

Aside from the gaffe about the PLO having authority in Gaza (they don't) doesn't this sound like a description of a sovereign state to you? Don't a country's leader, its security forces and its parliament and its governing bodies normally reside in its own territory? And can you think of any government that has independently operated offices in any foreign country? Aren't embassies and foreign offices abroad run by the sovereign state they represent?

So one one hand, the judges based their ruling on Palestine not being a state, which the PLO and PA obviously consider that it is on every occasion except being responsible for terrorism committed on its behalf. And on the other hand, they go out of their way to describe it exactly as one would describe a sovereign state!

Actually, this isn't so hard to figure out if you dig a little. The panel consisted of Judges John G. Koeltl (Obama appointee), Pierre N. Leval (Clinton appointee), and and Christopher F. Droney (Obama appointee) all of them left wing Democrats. And the Obama Administration went out of its way here to do whatever they could to get the original verdict tossed and and protect Abbas and the PA from having to pay a dime to the Americans they murdered and maimed.

In the original trial, President Obama had his Justice Department lean successfully on the judge in the case, George B. Daniels, to substantially lower the bond the Palestinians would have to post in order to appeal, normally 111 per cent of the judgement in these cases. The Justice Department filed a 'friend of the court' brief that claimed that a high bond would negate millions of dollars spent to promote Democracy and a Two State solution, and the judge complied over the objections of the victim's attorneys.

That same Obama Justice Department brief was allowed to be introduced as evidence by the defense, and given that there were two Obama appointees on the panel, there's no doubt that it carried a great deal of weight in this skewed judgment.

The Anti-Terrorism Act which allows United States citizens who are the victims of international terrorism to sue in the federal courts was passed some years after the 1985 murder of Leon Klinghoffer in the Palestinian hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. It was designed to provide American citizens with redress and such judgments have already been made against state sponsors of terrorism against American like Syria and Iran, even though Iran has no offices or diplomats here in the U.S. Notably, such outstanding judgments were ignored by the Obama Administration during negotiations over the Iran deal and during the recent $400 million dollar ransom paid Iran for American hostages.

Kent A. Yalowitz, a lawyer for the families in the case, said in a statement that the law had been passed by Congress “to protect Americans wherever in the world they traveled.”

“The very terrorists who prompted the law have now hidden behind the U.S. Constitution to avoid responsibility for their crimes,” Mr. Yalowitz said. “This cruel decision must be corrected so that these families may receive justice.”

Mr.Yalowitz is entirely correct, and frankly, I think the fact that most if not all of the victims were American Jews who were attacked in Israel also plays into this. This president's animus towards Israel is well known.

 


But aside from the possibility of an appeal to correct this, there's a bright side.

If Palestine isn't a state according to the Obama Administration, than the Israelis can declare Oslo and the Road Map null and void (the Palestinians already have) and proceed accordingly. They can cancel any and all agreements signed with the Palestinian Authority and the PLO since they were signed as agreements between two sovereign entities. Even the areas of sovereignty and control were clearly defined. But if Palestine isn't a state, then the Obama administration has no moral or legal right to treat it as one at any time, not just when it's convenient for the President's agenda. That 'non-state' status applies across the board.

If Palestine isn't a state, then Judea and Samaria (AKA The West Bank) belongs entirely to Israel, since the only state that ever physically controlled any part of it in recent times aside from Israel was Jordan, who illegally invaded it in 1948, were driven out in 1967 after they attacked Israel and have since relinquished all claims to the area. If Palestine isn't a state,there is no 'occupation' (not that there ever was) and Israel can annex it as sovereign territory. Moreover, since many of the 'Palestinians' including Mohammad Abbas hold Jordanian citizenship and Israel and Jordan have no dual citizenship agreement, Israel can legally remove these non-Israeli citizens from its new borders and repatriate them to Jordan. Israel can also insist that all UNWRA camps in this region be located elsewhere.

Since Palestine isn't a state, Israel can also avoid repatriating the tax monies it collects on the PLO's behalf, deposit it in a fund, and allow Israelis and American Jews and their families to sue in Israeli courts and collect damages accordingly.

The Obama Administration and its minions can make the decision to treat Palestine as a state in every respect except the basic one of responsibility for its actions. That's pretty much been the president's policy since he took office, and not just when it comes to Palestine. Essentially, it's an endorsement of the same old BDS horse manure that 'resistance to occupation is not terrorism.' At least when it comes to Israel, the Jew among nations.

But aside from being brutally immoral in terms of what America has always stood for, this action opens up a whole new door. If Palestine isn't a state, then the Obama Administration doesn't have a leg to stand on when talking about 'Palestinian land,' 'occupation,' or demanding further Israeli concessions.

Life, Death And Faith

 

Recently, a young man of my acquaintance passed away. He was one of those people who seemed to have everything going for him...a great, successful career doing what he loved, a loving wife and family, and wonderful friendships. I never met him personally, but based on what I know of his courageous struggle with his disease and the sincere outpouring of sorrow not just from his family but those he knew and worked with, he was a good, decent and loving human being who seems to have left this earth far too soon. He had yet to have his 40th birthday.

In Israel just a few days before that, one of the Arabs whom call themselves Palestinians broke into the bedroom of a 13-year-old Israeli girl who never did harm to him or anyone else and happily murdered her. He was shot down after he attacked another human being, but in his mind and the mind of the Palestinian Authority, its schools, mosques and media, he was a hero, a jihad warrior and a martyr doing Allah's will. Not only that, but to his family, he represented a handsome financial stipend.




I can't get her mother's anguished cry at her funeral out of my mind..."How do you say goodbye to your 13-year-old child?"

Is there any way to answer that?

If G-d exists, why does He allow such things to happen? Or to use the old cliche,why do bad things happen to good people? And it's even more interesting to turn that one around...why do good things seem to happen to those whom do evil, if a truly just G-d exists? Is it all just random? Does G-d exist at all or is He just a convenient fable man thought up with many names and guises to explain the inexplicable? Karl Marx referred to religion as 'the opiate of the masses.' Is G-d simply a fairy tale, just a ploy by the ruling classes to keep people in line?

As a reasonably observant Jew, one example that's always thrown at me by people when this sort of thing comes up is the Holocaust. Millions of Jews, many of them quite religious were murdered in the most brutal fashion imaginable. Whole Rabbinic dynasties going back centuries were wiped out. Even the most predatory beasts do not engage in such behavior at their worst. And in the end, only a handful of the perpetrators and their many enablers were ever punished in any way. If a loving, just G-d truly exists, how could he possibly allow that?

I can't say I know all the answers, nor frankly, would I really wish to. One of my favorite spiritual quotes comes from Ramakrishna, who wrote that a G-d who can be explained is no G-d at all. Or as one of the pithier Jewish sages once said, "If I understood G-d, I'd be G-d."

There's a great deal of insight there, I think. Given the nature of G-d as defined by every major faith, how could we possibly judge Him by our human standards?

Another thing I've realized over time and with study is that G-d simply plays on a much bigger field than we do. By nature, our perceptions are limited. We simply don't see the big universal picture, the Divine Plan and the reasons certain things might need to happen that seem random good or evil to us. And our view of such things is limited to what happens in this physical world. We have no view as to what happens in the next world, its judgements and designs.

Take the Holocaust, for instance.

I would not remotely represent that I of all people have the answer, but here are a couple of things to consider.

The Nazis considered the extermination of the Jews a government policy and a war aim. They spent millions of reichmarks, tons of badly needed building materials like concrete, valuable fuel, hours upon hours of manpower and sizeable amounts of numerous other resources pursuing this goal. There are number of documented instances where trains bearing badly needed munitions, tanks, medical supplies and even Wehrmacht troops were delayed, sometimes for days to allow trains headed to the extermination camps to go before them. In some cases, even hospital trains containing German wounded were sidelined by shipments to places like Auschwitz and Bergen-Belson. Those took priority.

Imagine if Hitler had simply left the Jews alone? General Rommel, the German commander in Normandy complained constantly about the lack of concrete and other materials to build up his defenses. With the concrete, fuel, production capacity, metal and manpower that would have been available if the Holocaust had not occurred, what would the Atlantic Wall the Allies attacked on D-Day have been like? How much stronger might it have been? How many more tanks, planes and U-boats might have been constructed? How effective,perhaps even successful would the campaign against the Russians or Hitler's Afrika Corps and their efforts to capture Suez and link up with Nazi forces in the Caucasus have been?

The allies didn't fight WWII to save the Jews, but if there hadn't been some knowledge of the Nazi's atrocities and what that presaged for Britain, would they have come to an agreement with Hitler instead of going to war, as Stalin did? Would America, with its strong isolationist movement been motivated to do Lend-Lease and supply Britain with so much aid, let alone get into a de facto war with the Nazis in the North Atlantic well before Pearl Harbor?

And after the war was over, when the world saw the results of the Holocaust with their own eyes and much of it finally was confronted its own guilt for at best turning their back on the Jews..without that, would the world have defied Britain's wishes and recognized Israel at the UN in 1948?

Both the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible accept the messianic prophecies in Isaiah and Ezekiel, that say clearly that the Jews returning to the land G-d gave them is part of the Divine Plan. Was the Holocaust G-d's way of ensuring Hitler's defeat and the Jew's return to Israel after 2000 years of exile, something unheard of ever before in history? Did those Nazis and their many enablers escape judgement in this world only to face far harsher judgement in the next? Did their victims receive comfort,justice and great rewards there for their unspeakable suffering? We have no way of knowing, only faith in G-d's ultimate promise of justice.

Does G-d give us warnings because we're slow learners and need tragedy to awaken us to danger and the need to take action? With the murder of 13-year-old Hallel Yaffe Ariel, the government of Israel defied the Obama Administration and the EU's disapproval by announcing major building projects in Jerusalem as well as Judea and Samaria. And the Knesset has also decided that Israel will now confiscate out of the tax monies Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority a sum equivalent to the amount Mahmoud Abbas and the PA pay out as stipends to convicted murderers in Israeli jails, as well as other measures that show that Israelis are finally getting the message about the 'Palestinians' and those whom condemn each atrocity but continue to fund the PA kleptocracy.

For that matter,since Hallel Yaffe Ariel had dual U.S. citizenship, congress is already on the verge of passing legislation that will reduce American funding to the PA by a similar amount...and with enough votes hopefully to override an Obama veto.

And speaking of Obama and Mrs. Clinton, is their ascendancy a warning to us to change our ways and our direction in an election year? Have the eight years of President Obama's term been designed to push us in the direction to make that change?

I honestly don't know if Hallel Yaffe Ariel's tragic murder was a message. But as I said, it's obvious G-d simply plays on a much bigger field than we do, and that good and evil may have very different meanings and even different purposes in the Divine context then the ones we think they do.

Does G-d sometimes take souls into the next world for purposes we have no understanding of? I have no doubt of that. Why is a different question,although I have a few thoughts on that as well I'd just as soon not go into here.

Nor do I have any doubt at all that that next world beyond our own exists, simply because I received, without going into details, a very clear glimpse of that existence at a very young age when I least expected it. That world's exact nature en toto is beyond my knowledge, but it definitely is as real as the one we perceive. The ancient Hindus referred to what we see in the physical world as maya, illusion. Many figures in history have recorded their own perception of that world beyond the one we see.

In the end, we're left with speculation, and I think that's as it should be.

Having been fortunate to experience G-d's mercy and intervention in my own life at various times (including some times when I didn't realize it or appreciate it properly until much later), I believe in His ultimate goodness and His Divine purpose. The alternative would be to depend on man's goodness or to believe in random chaos, and both seem flawed to me and contradict my own experience in the matter.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe  Menachem Schneerson once wrote in one of his scintillating commentaries that G-d is only as interested in us as we are in Him. I've been interested in G-d for years, and all I can say is I recommend making His acquaintance. He always answers, and you never get put on hold or sent to voicemail. But sometimes the answer is different than the one you wanted. Or maybe it's the one you need whether you know it or not.

This long, rambling essay is something recent events brought out of me, and I apologize for its length but I have a feeling you weren't bored. As for the old problem of good and evil, again they may very well be quite different than we perceive them as....necessary tools suited for us and our level of understanding.

And death? A send off to a different plane entirely. A new beginning rather than an end...

 


"Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep,

       He hath awaken'd from the dream of life;

       'Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep

       With phantoms an unprofitable strife,

       And in mad trance, strike with our spirit's knife

       Invulnerable nothings. We decay

       Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief

       Convulse us and consume us day by day,

And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.

    He has outsoar'd the shadow of our night;

       Envy and calumny and hate and pain,

       And that unrest which men miscall delight,

       Can touch him not and torture not again;

       From the contagion of the world's slow stain

       He is secure, and now can never mourn

       A heart grown cold, a head grown gray in vain;

       Nor, when the spirit's self has ceas'd to burn,

With sparkless ashes load an unlamented urn.

He lives, he wakes—'tis Death is dead, not he;

       Mourn not for Adonais. Thou young Dawn,

       Turn all thy dew to splendour, for from thee

       The spirit thou lamentest is not gone;

       Ye caverns and ye forests, cease to moan!

       Cease, ye faint flowers and fountains, and thou Air,

       Which like a mourning veil thy scarf hadst thrown

       O'er the abandon'd Earth, now leave it bare

Even to the joyous stars which smile on its despair!" *

-Selah-



* From Percy Bysshe And Marry Shelly's Adonaïs

Justice: US Jury Awards Terror Victims $218M From PLO

Justice delayed, but justice at last.

An American jury ordered the Palestine Liberation Organization and The Palestinian Authority as co-defendants to pay $218 million in damages for PA and PLO funding and abetting terrorist attacks in Jerusalem that killed and gravely injured American citizens.

The trial, which took place in federal court in Manhattan found in favor of 10 American families suing over six attacks attributed to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (Fatah) and Hamas. The award might be tripled under the US Anti-Terrorism Act:

"Now the PLO and the PA know there is a price for supporting terrorism," said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, in an interview after the verdict. [...]

Victims and their families had requested more than $350 million, or over $1 billion after tripling, over shootings and bombings from 2002 to 2004 that killed 33 people and injured over 450.

In closing arguments, plaintiff attorney Kent Yalowitz had urged the Manhattan jury to order the PLO and Palestinian Authority to pay $350 million for providing material support to terrorists involved in six bombings and shootings from 2002 to 2004.

No amount could make up for the human toll, he said. "But if the only thing you can give them is money, then money has to stand in as compensation for the unspeakable loss," he added.


The PLO's lawyers, of course, stated that their clients wouldn't even hurt a Jewish bunny rabbit, and that these 'radicals' (whom the PLO is paying salaries to,using as heroic role models, lionizing in their mosques, schools and media and naming public buildings after) did what they did for their own reasons.

They will of course appeal, but this is still a landmark verdict. Hopefully these damages could be collected by going after the $2 billion Palestine Investment Fund(PIF) Fatah's slush fund created using stolen donor funds, the personal assets of the PLO and PA official involved or subtracted from any aid given to 'Palestine.'

Throughout the trial, US District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan largely denied bids by the Palestinian Authority and the PLO to dismiss the long-running lawsuit. At a court hearing in December, Daniels also reaffirmed his decision in 2008 finding that his court had jurisdiction over claims against the Palestinian Authority and PLO despite changes in law at the appellate level.

The Sokolow family, the lead plaintiff in the trial, testified three weeks ago; a January 2002 bombing injured Jamie Sokolow, her sister Lauren, her mother Rena and her father Mark, all of whom testified.


Adding some unintentional comedy to the proceedings was the despicable Hannan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO's executive committee. According to her testimony - wait for it - Yasser Arafat worked very hard with US and Israeli officials to combat terrorism.

I'm sure the judge had to bang his gavel to restore order after the bitter laughter that undoubtedly broke out after that disgraceful lie.

Kol Hakavod to Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Kent Yalowitz and the rest of their team whom won an important victory for human decency and justice today.

U.S. East Jerusalem Consulate Creating Own Private Palestinian Terrorist Militia

 

As some of you may know, The White House refused to locate its embassy in Israel capitol, Jerusalem. Instead, it has two consular facilities, an embassy in Tel Aviv and a consulate in East Jerusalem that openly sees itself according to its own web page “as the embassy of the United States of America in Palestine.”

There is a small consular office in West Jerusalem but it is pretty much limited to tasks like turning in absentee ballots. If Jews living or traveling in Israel need to have a passport issued, obtain a visa for the US, register for social security or register children as American citizens, they either have to use the 'East Jerusalem' consulate or travel to Tel Aviv to use the American embassy.

The American diplomats whom work there live in West Jerusalem but commute, and are noted for their pro-Palestinian sympathies, and the East Jerusalem consulate is staffed mostly by those Arabs whom identify themselves as Palestinians whose hostility to Jews is an open secret. There is one exception to this..or there was until now.

Under a 2011 agreement with the U.S., only IDF combat veterans would be authorized to carry arms as consulate guards. Also, those arms were limited to 100 handguns.

The Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth has reported that this agreement has now been blatantly violated. The consulate's new security director, Dan Cronin has hired 35 Palestinian security guards, many of whom have criminal records.

Three Israeli security guards who worked at the US consulate resigned in the wake of a plan to hire 35 Palestinians from East Jerusalem as armed security guards who are currently undergoing training in Yericho (Jericho). One of them has gone so far as to accuse the consulate of creating "an armed Palestinian militia."

According to the report in Yediot Aharonot, the plan is to employ the Palestinians mainly to escort convoys of American diplomats in Judea-Samaria.

...

The report said that the change in the consulate Israelis began months ago, with the appointment of consulate security officer Dan Cronin. Employees say that since they started working there seven Israeli security guards were fired, compared with one Palestinian guard.

The three Israeli guards who recently resigned in protest at his behavior, say he is training the Palestinian security guards at the American facility in Jericho, where Palestinian security forces are training. Some of the guards were even flown to the US for training.

"The law in Israel is only a recommendation for him," one employee fired. "Cronin does whatever he wants."

According to them, some of the Palestinian security guards employed at the consulate were arrested in the past for throwing rocks or have relatives who were convicted of hostile terrorist activities.

"The Consulate head's behavior tends toward the Palestinians, and Cronin actually established a Palestinian armed militia for the Consulate," an employee said. "He is training them with weapons, combat and tactical exercises. There is a lack of responsibility here - who ensures that such weapons, once given over to Palestinian guards, won't make their way to terror groups?"

The answer to that question is certainly easy. Any weapons, materials and trained personnel given to 'Palestine' have always ended up being used against Israeli civilians, whether it was the cement for 'construction' given to Hamas by UNRWA and USAid used to create the terror attack tunnels or the M-16s given to Arafat's security thugs prior to the Second Intifada.

The anti-Israeli character of the consulate today is clear, according to the report: the most senior adviser is a Palestinian Arab, Ibrahim Delalsh, who sat in Israeli prison for belonging to Fatah-linked terror groups. Another advisor is a relative of one of the leaders of Hamas in Jerusalem, Muhammad Hassan Abu Tir, who has been in and out of Israeli prisons many times.

But wait, there's more.

Yediot is also reporting that the consulate also keeps an arsenal of machine guns and rifles on the premises,a further violation of the 2011 agreement.

The U.S. consulate refused to allow reporters to speak directly to Cronin or to address any of the allegations in the article directly,but merely issued a blanket statement saying that “The US Consulate General in Jerusalem has full confidence in the professionalism of its staff.”

“We do not discuss the security of our diplomatic missions, but note there are many inaccuracies in the story.”

“In addition,” he said, “we coordinate fully and regularly with local authorities.”

Needless to say, the statement didn't point out any 'inaccuracies.' And there was very obviously no co-ordination with the Israeli government or the Israeli police...although I'm sure Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah security thugs knew all about it.

What the Obama Administration is doing is creating a trained cadre of terrorists and a private arms depot where weaponry can be smuggled under diplomatic cover to Area A, the part of Judea and Samaria where the Palestinian Authority is in charge.

This overtly hostile action is similar to the two fully armed combat brigades the Obama Administration created for Fatah trained by General Keith Dayton with our tax dollars. Since these units are not going to take on the IDF directly, they're designed to conduct guerilla war against Israel's civilians and that's what they're going to be used for eventually.

 

 


Their innocent blood will be on our hands...we paid for it.

So much for President Obama's horse manure about Israel's security.And people wonder why the relationship between America and Israel has been damaged so badly?

When Israel gets demonized for being intransigent or hardline for failing to follow the Obama Administration's diktats or for not clearing its security actions with America, remember this nonsense.

Palestinian Authority Desperate To Stave Off Landmark NY Terrorism Trial

The Palestinian Authority is desperately trying to weasel out of a January trial date in front of the US District Court in New York.

Shurat Hadin, an Israeli civil rights organization is suing the Palestinian Authority and the PLO for over one billion dollars on behalf of 11 families for involvement of PA and PLO members in seven terror attacks between 2001 and 2004 during the Second Intifada...attacks that the PA and PLO directed or funded.

The PA and PLO already lost a November trial in an attempt to get the case thrown out when the court ruled that was sufficient evidence to present to a jury that the PA and PLO provided material support for the attacks that murdered American citizens. The PA is liable on six of the seven attacks.

The court also ruled that there was enough evidence for a jury to determine that PA employees conducted terrorist attacks against civilians in Israel, and that the PA and PLO provided weapons, money and other material support in violation of U.S.laws, as well as safe haven to the terrorists, as well material support to Hamas and Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the "military wing" of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.

The trial date for this landmark case is set for January and the PA and PLO's lawyers have already seen the evidence. So they're doing everything possible to avoid going to trial. They already tried the sovereign immunity argument and failed, so their next step was to file a request for a writ of mandamus, asking the court to recuse itself as an improper venue:

"For years the PA provided funding and every measure of support for the murderous terrorist operations in Israel that devastated the country and left so many civilians dead," said Shurat Hadin director Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner.

Darshan-Leitner added "the decision and trial will provide an unprecedented opportunity to present to a New York jury all that the evidence that has been amassed documenting the Palestinians use of terrorism as an official policy to advance their goals."

If Shurat Hadin wins their case, all of the assets of the PA,Fatah and the PLO will become subject to judgement. In fact,Mahmoud Abbas,who according to former PLO Security Chief Mahmoud Dahlan personally stole at least $1.3 billion in donor aid could see his personal assets subject to judgment.So could Fatah's Palestine Investment Fund, worth about $2 billion or so.

Even better,the $100 million per month in PA taxes Israel collects for them could be levied as well. I've never understood why the Israelis, who are footing the bill for the care and rehabilitation of hundreds of terrorism victims didn't put these funds in escrow years ago and allow the families of these victims to sue in Israeli courts and obtain financial judgments against th ePA that could be paid out of those funds.

If this case goes to trial, and it looks like it will, an American jury is finally going to hear first hand how the Palestinian Authority planned, hired out, financed and assisted in the murder of their fellow Americans.

Of course,the next question that needs answering is why the Clinton,Bush and Obama Administrations continued to fund these creatures and pressure Israel to make concessions to them as 'peace partners.'

All three administrations had to have known about this.

The Blood Of Zion Cries Out

 

Early this morning, four Jews at morning prayers were murdered in a synagogue in Jerusalem after two Palestinian broke in and assaulted the worshipers with gunfire and meat cleavers.

Many others were wounded and four are in critical condition.

The terrorist attack took place in Har Hof a predominantly Orthodox neighborhood at the at the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue on Agasi Street.

The Murder victims were identified as Rabbi Moshe Twersky, the head of the Torat Moshe yeshiva, 59; 40-year-old  Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky; 50-year-old Rabbi Kalman Levine; and 68-year-old Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg(HY"D). Rabbi Kupinsky, Rabbi Levine and Rabbi Twersky were all American citizens, while Rabbi Goldberg was a British subject. A Druze policeman, 30-year-old Master Sergeant Zidan Sif subsequently died of his wounds as well, and all Israel will mourn and honor him.

The killers stormed the synagogue at 7 AM local time. There was no warning and no way for the victims to defend themselves.The rabbis were murdered during the sacred prayer of Shimoneh Esrei, with siddurim (prayer books) in their hands and their tefillum on.

Eye witness Ya'akov Amos said: 'The terrorist moved to within a metre of me then started shooting. One, two, three, bang, bang, bang. I immediately hit the ground and tried to protect myself with a prayer stand. He kept screaming 'Allah hu'Akbar'.

 

There was blood everywhere, so much that one of the medical workers slipped in it and broke his leg.

The international reaction was interesting. Even U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry seemed shocked, with his voice quavering. He even used the "T" word and called for an end to incitement against Jews.

Phillip Hammond, Britain's Foreign Secretary contented himself with a bloodless statement that 'both sides' should seek to 'reduce tension.' President Obama, of course, said much the same thing. Somehow, I doubt they would have merely talked about both sides reducing tension if four imams had been murdered by a Jew and Qu'rans profaned in this way.

Israel's economics minister Naftali Bennett was interviewed by the BBC today, and provides us with another indication of exactly how sick and depraved Britain has become when it comes to Israel and the Jews.



(just a hint - when Bennett mentions Abu Mazen, he is using Mahmoud Abbas's nom de guerre, the terrorist name he used as Arafat's second-in-command.)

Notice how the interviewer doesn't even address the issue of Abbas inciting terrorism, but pulls the case of an Arab bus driver who died yesterday, as though that made the savage murder of four Jews at prayer legitimate. That Arab driver, by the way, had a full investigation and an autopsy done on him and there is no doubt he committed suicide. Unlike the Palestinian Authority, Israel jails murderers no matter who they are.

I really felt like saying 'Kol Hakavod' when Bennett held up a picture of one of the victims, which the interviewer hastily told him to put down lest he upset the gentle sensibilities of her viewers. I think it is absolutely essential to do just that - to let the British public see what their government is funding and supporting. And I hope it upsets them to the point of utter shame.

At the end of the interview, Bennett says that Britain is going to have to make a choice of whether they support the Free World or not. As I'm sure Bennett knows, the British Government has already made that choice.Which is why, perhaps, they feel compelled to put up with soldiers being beheaded in broad daylight and no go areas for police and non-Muslims in London and other large British cities.



The murderers were both killed in a shootout with police at the scene. They were Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal from the Jabal Mukaber neighborhood in east Jerusalem. Needless to say, they were acclaimed as heroes and martyrs by all the factions of the Arabs whom call themselves Palestinians.







 "We responded with shouts of joy when we received the news about their deaths," Ala'a Abu Jamal said of his cousins Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal to Yedioth Aharonoth. "People here distributed candies to guests who visited us, and there was joy for the martyrs."

In a message published on its official new website Al-Resalah, Hamas said the attack was “a quality development in fighting the occupation. We highly value the heroism of its operatives.” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri praised the attack on Qatari news channel Al-Jazeera as “heroic,” calling for more attacks of the same kind.

 Hamas MP Mushir Al-Masri happily wrote on Twitter that “Jerusalem has nothing but men who love martyrdom. The heroes of the knife are in Jerusalem. The heroes of the run-over [car attacks] are in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem men take revenge.”

And he posted this on his Facebook page:

The Arab killer is asking 'Where are they hiding?" Needless to say, in spite of what this cartoon shows none of the worshipers were armed.

And Fatah? Mahmoud Abbas, AKA Abu Mazen issued a 'condemnation' that wasn't one. In a statement (in English, not Arabic)it said that “The Palestinian presidency" condemns violence "from whatever source" and "demands an end to the invasions of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the provocations of the Settlers."

In other words, 'So sorry, but unless you surrender Jerusalem to us expect more of the same.'

This is the same Mahmoud Abbas who accused Jews of “contaminating” Al-Aqsa Mosque last week, who just a few days ago was telling his people, in Arabic, to 'defend Jerusalem' by any means necessary. This is the same Mahmoud Abbas who said nothing when Fatah published cartoons and Facebook posts encouraging terrorist attacks on Jews and “days of rage” to defend the 'threatened' Al-Aqsa.

Tawfik Tirawi, former chief of the Palestinian General Security in the West Bank and a member of Fatah’s Central Committee made it even plainer, and in Arabic. Today he told a radio station in Hebron that the attack was “nothing but a reaction to the recent crimes of the occupation and the settlers in occupied Jerusalem and across the nation. The threats of the occupation against our people and the Palestinian leadership, represented by the president, will only increase our efforts in safeguarding our rights.”

His remarks were reprinted on Fatah's official Facebook page.

I should make something clear here. This is not the fault of Abbas, or Hamas, or any of the Arabs who identify themselves as Palestinians.

It is the fault of the Israeli government.

A significant number of the Palestinians are simply acting as they have always acted since the 1920's, and these tendencies were unleashed even further once Arafat and the PLO were allowed in to take over after Oslo.



Israeli governments since Oslo have always allowed themselves to be pressured to ignore these instances of sheer horror...to release  convicted murderers, to make concessions to the terrorist entities on Israel's borders, and most of all to avoid  finishing them off entirely when their violence and bloodshed mandated a response. This has been especially true since Barack Obama, who styles himself as the Palestinian's very own community organizer entered the White House.

Is it any wonder that this sort of thing continues to happen? Is it really so puzzling that after allowing Hamas to continue in Gaza and maintaining any kind of relationship with Abbas and the PLO once they allied themselves openly with Hamas that they would resort back to Arafat's tactics?

Yasser Arafat himself outlined for his followers what this war was really about. On Jordanian TV, right after signing the Oslo Accords he was criticized for signing a peace agreement with the Jews. He responded by reminding his audience of the Peace of Hubidiyeh, a treaty Mohammed made with the Quraysh tribe that he violated as soon as he was strong enough to massacre them, a story every Muslim knows. And then he outlined exactly what this war was about, saying that "either the Jews will push us into the sea or we will push them into the sea."

Arafat, the leaders of Hamas and numerous members of Fatah have sung the same songs for years. Is it their fault that Israeli governments for years have refused to take them seriously?



It is time they did.

The violence in Jerusalem can be curtailed, not by more security patrols and not by putting guards in front of every synagogue and public building but by teaching the Arabs whom call themselves Palestinians that there are real world consequences for their actions.

As you may have noticed, no matter how much innocent Jewish blood is spilled, it is always Israel who is advised to 'reduce tensions' and 'avoid provocation.'  It is always Israel who is castigated for building homes for its people, in spite of over an estimated 40,000 illegal Arab-built structures in East Jerusalem, and an entire city  being constructed from scratch with EU and US Aid money that encroaches on Israeli communities in Area C of Judea.

This is the first time I have ever heard John Kerry mention the constant hatred being spewed by the mosques, media and schools in both Gaza and in the PLO occupied areas of Judea and Samaria as something counterproductive to any real peace. And even his condemnation of this horror as well as the other ones from the UN and EU that will no doubt be voiced are maddeningly hollow..because they still fund and support this evil.

As Naftali Bennett said, they are going to have to choose sides, and that particularly applies to the United States.But Israel has some choices to make as well.

Are they going to settle for the status quo and a war of attrition that favors Israel's enemies? Or are they are they going to do what's necessary to end it and win the right to live peacefully?

I've always favored Israel simply delineating its own borders and annexing that land,along with a transfer of populations to the respective sides of those borders. But at the very least Israel should answer every terrorist attack with the outright annexation of more land in Judea and Samaria, showing the Arabs whom call themselves Palestinians that they are there to stay, and that attacks on Israel cost them dearly. Build on the land, and call the EU's bluff. In the unlikely event that they follow through on their threats to indulge in sanctions,they have a lot more to lose than Israel does right now economically.

When there are violent riots, as there were in Jabal Mukaber today, simply arrest the perpetrators,take away their Israeli ID cards and expel them to Gaza or to Area A for Abbas to deal with.Aside from providing real world consequences, it will also separate those Arabs who like the good life in Israel and are willing to live in peace (and there are more of them them you think) from those whom want to poison the well with violence.

Make the disarmament of Hamas an iron clad condition for any further reconstruction aid, especially since Hamas is already diverting money and materials to remaking its terrorist infrastructure. Both the EU and Secretary of State Kerry have given lip service to the importance of disarming Hamas for peace. Hold them to it.

If the Muslim Waqf that is in charge of the al-Aqsa Mosque continues to incite riots and stone throwing on the Temple Mount and refuses to allow Jews to enjoy it peacefully, simply explain to them that the next time it happens the police will respond in force, the Waqf's control of al-Aqsa and the Mount will be ended, the members of the Waqf expelled from Israel and the mosque shut down.

And allow Israelis to sue the PLO and Hamas in Israelis courts for damages to property and person, taking the judgments out of the tax monies Israel collects for the PLO.

These are the sort of steps that are ultimately going to defeat the Third Intifada. It's long past time to treat Hamas/Fatah like the hostile entity it is. And if it becomes necessary to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, so be it.

I am tired of seeing headlines like I saw today, tired of seeing the Arabs whom identify themselves as Palestinians celebrating each new atrocity, tired of seeing world leaders being complicit with this evil.

And I am especially tired of Israel accepting this hypocrisy. I am sick to death of it. It is one thing to be the Jew among nations, but something else entirely to live on your knees and internalize it.

Selah.

The U.S. State Department Is At War...With Israel

When it comes to hatred and hypocrisy it's business as usual where Israel's concerned when it comes to the U.S. State Department, which has become a willing tool of the Obama Administration to discredit and demonize Israel.And that was clearly demonstrated today in the exchanges below.



Last Week, U.S Chief of Staff General Martin Donovan made a speech about Israel and the Gaza War that went pretty far off the Obama Regime's reservation. He not only praised the IDF for their efforts to avoid civilian casualties,saying that Israel had gone to “extraordinary lengths” in Gaza, but revealed that the U.S. Armed Forces had sent a delegation to learn about the IDF's policies to help Americans to improve their own record in wartime.

This directly contradicted the State Department and the White House, whose stated position was to attack Israel at every opportunity for not doing enough to avoid civilian casualties.

When former Obama campaign flack turned State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki was questioned about this by Matt Lee at the AP of all places, the exchange revealed quite a bit:

MATT LEE, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Yesterday, the ICC made its decision that there was no case to prosecute for war crimes in Gaza. But also yesterday – and you spoke about that very briefly here. But also yesterday, General Dempsey, who is no slouch when it comes to military things, told an audience in New York that the Israelis went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage during the Gaza war. And I’m puzzled, because I thought it was the position of the Administration – or maybe it was just the position of the State Department and the White House – that Israel was not doing enough to live up to its – what you called its own high standards. Back on August 3rd, there was the statement you put out after the UNRWA school incident, saying that the U.S. “is appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling.” And that was some pretty fierce criticism. How do you reconcile these two apparent divergent points of view? When this statement came out, the United States was appalled? Did that just mean the State Department was appalled?

JEN PSAKI, STATE DEPARTMENT: No, that is the position of the Administration; it remains the position of the Administration. As we made clear throughout the summer’s conflict, we supported Israel’s right to self-defense and strongly condemned Hamas’s rocket attacks that deliberately targeted civilians, and the use of tunnels, of course, of attacks into Israel. However, we also expressed deep concern and heartbreak for the civilian death toll in Gaza and made clear, as you noted in the statement you pointed to, that we believed that Israel could have done more to prevent civilian casualties, and it was important that they held their selves to a high standard. So that remains our view and position about this summer’s events.

LEE: Okay. But I’m still confused as to how you can reconcile the fact that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – who knows a bit about how military operations work, I would venture to guess; I don’t know him, but I assume that he wouldn’t be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff if he was – if he didn’t –

MS. PSAKI: Correct.

LEE: — says that the Israelis essentially did the best that they could and lived up to – by extension lived up to their high standards by taking – by going to, quote, “extraordinary lengths” to limit the collateral damage.

MS. PSAKI: Well, I would point you to the chairman’s team for his – more specifics on his comments. But it remains the broad view of the entire Administration that they could have done more and they should have taken more – all feasible precautions to prevent civilian casualties.

It gets even worse.

There were two terrorist murders in Israel today, one by an Arab who entered the country illegally and attacked and knifed to death a young airman, Almog Shiloni, 20,(HY"D) as he was waiting at the Haganah train station in south Tel Aviv and a second one by an Islamic Jihad operative whom Israel had freed as a 'gesture to Mahmoud Abbas.' His victim was Dalia Lemkus, 26 (HY"D), who was first run over as she waited at a bus stop in Alon Shvut near Gush Etzion in Judea and then deliberately stabbed to death when her murderer got out of his car to make sure he finished the job.

 

Jen Psaki's remarks on this? She referred to them as “unfortunately a couple of events.”

Just, you know, the kind of tragedies that happen some time. Here's the rest of her statement:

"We strongly condemn the stabbings – the stabbing today in the West Bank and we deeply regret the loss of life. Our condolences go out to the victim’s family. It is absolutely critical that parties take every possible measure to protect civilians and de-escalate tensions,” Psaki said.

Protect civilians? Does she even listen to what comes out of her mouth? These were deliberate terrorist attacks aimed at killing civilians. And the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are encouraging them.



 

And of course, being Jen Psaki, she had to find something to say to show some kind of  equivalence between Israel and the Arabs whom call themselves Palestinians...

“We are also seeking additional information surrounding the incident of the Israeli Arab who was shot with – who was shot as well with a live bullet. We’re looking for information surrounding this incident. We’re in touch – close touch with the Ministry of Justice. And of course, we urge all parties to exercise restraint."

The Arab whom she's perhaps talking about, Khayr al-Din al-Hamdan had attacked a police car with a knife and attempted to attack the police inside. Or perhaps she means Dalia Lemkus's murderer Maher Hamdi al-Hashalmoun from Hebron, who was shot by police as he ran away on foot after a 59-year-old Israeli stopped his car, got out and took the killer on with his bare hands

A reporter asked her, “If you’re standing at a bus stop or something and someone runs a car into you or comes up and stabs you, I don’t know how – I mean, those people aren’t – don’t need to exercise restraint, do they?”

Her reply? “I think I’m referring to the fact that we know that there have been – there’s been rising tensions in the region that has led to some of these incidents. I think we all are aware of that.”

“Obviously, there have been a range of issues and events that have led to the rising tensions in the region that both sides need to do more to fix.”

These exchanges reveal a lot. They tell us that the constant hammering on Israel by the Obama Administration is all about President Obama's attitude towards Israel and towards Benyamin Netanyahu, not anything about how Israel defends itself.

This president and his minions don't consider the attacks against Israeli civilians to be terrorism, but 'legitimate' resistance by 'freedom fighters.' That's exactly why they never use the 'T' word to describe them.

It's always Israel's fault. And if that isn't supported in the least by facts, that doesn't stop Psaki and others of her ilk from being the mouthpieces used to demonize Israel and its security forces as they defend the country. It's to try and force Israel back to indefensible borders that would result in even worse violence than exists now.

The president and his team don't consider Israel an ally. They see Israel as a problem he needs to neutralize and create distance from, just as he said openly in 2009. It's what he wanted from the very beginning, and it's much more to his taste than actually fighting Islamists or seeing to it that Iran is stopped from getting nuclear weapons

Also, the callous dismissal of what Dempsey had to say is just one more example of exactly how much respect this president and his team have for our military and their advice and opinions.

And Jen Psaki?

I know, it's just a well paid job that involves equating Israel with the likes of Hamas/Fatah and whitewashing the Obama regime's despicable stance by blaming 'both sides', as if the victims brought it on themselves just by being there. But then, there are limits in what most people with any decency will do for money ...unless they're true believers. Ms. Psaki obviously is one, and is thus enabling what I'd call more than the usual level of evil.

There's always a price for that in the end.

More Palestinian Terror In Jerusalem Today As U.S. tells Israel 'Avoid Provocation'

 

Palestinian terrorists struck again in Jerusalem today.

The first attack occurred when a Palestinian driver the plowed his truck into a crowd of people at a light rail station along the seam-line between East and West Jerusalem late Wednesday morning, killing a Border Police officer, and injuring 14 more people, one of them critically.

 

Ironically, the police officer was a Druze, an Arab from Beit Jann, a Druze village.Border Police officer Jedan Assad (HY"D, May G-d avenge his blood) was a father to a three-year-old son, and his wife is five months pregnant. His father said later that Assad “loved his service, and loved Jerusalem.”

I guarantee you their will be hundreds of Israelis, both Duze and Jews at  his funeral.

His murderer has been identified as 48-year-old Ibrahim al-Akary from Shuafat in East Jerusalem. He hit several pedestrians at a light rail station on the corner of Bar Lev and Shimon Ha’Zadik streets, close to the Border Police headquarters on Route 1, and then continued driving along the tracks, hitting several cars along the way until finally crashing to a halt.

Here's a link to footage of bystanders at the light rail stop being run down by Akary, as they tried to get out of the way of the speeding van. This footage is graphic and not for the fainthearted.

He then got out of his white commercial van, carrying a metal bar, and began attacking a group of policemen before Border Police at the scene shot and killed him. Needless to say, this murderer is a hero to Hamas/Fatah.


His brother, Musa Muhammad al-Akary, served 19 years in an Israeli prison for the 1992 kidnapping and murder of IDF soldier Nissim Toledano in Lod. He was released in the 2011 deal that ransomed kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit from Hamas captivity.

The second attack took place near the Gush Etzion junction, when a Palestinian drove a truck with Palestinian plates into a group of three IDF soldiers standing near a checkpoint by al-Arroub. They suffered moderate-to-severe injuries according to Magen David Adom rescue personnel. The families have reportedly been notified.

The vehicle escaped towards Hebron, and Israeli security forces are searching the area and placing barricades to catch the suspect. Needless to say,Mahmoud Abbas's Security forces aren't going to turn the terrorist in.

It also should be no surprise that the U.S. ambassador to Israel,Dan Shapiro made the usual meaningless condemnation and then called for Israel to ‘act with restrain and lower tensions.’

“It’s a very tense time in Jerusalem, especially around the holy sites. We think this is a time when everyone, and we’re calling on to act with restraint, to lower the tensions, not to engage in provocations, either word or deed, and to make very clear that violence is never acceptable.

"That’s the leadership that’s needed right now to prevent a further deterioration of the situation in Jerusalem, and we’re working with all sides to try to achieve that."

Of course the Obama Administration is working with both sides.are they telling Mahmoud Abbas to stop incitement or lose all that U.S. funding for Hamas/Fatah? Of course not. It's only Israel who needs to act with restraint, and avoid 'provocation', which apparently occurs simply because Jews are in Jerusalem at all.

The answer the Israelis have come up with so far is to place concrete barriers at train stops so vehicles can't injure people waiting for the trains. That's fine as a quick fix but doesn't solve the problem.

Some of the Israeli leadership may still be in denial, but they need to face up to the fact that this is the Third Intifada. And just like the second one, it was planned long in advance and merely awaited a convenient excuse to launch it. The provacation Ambasador Shapiro spoke about is not coming from Israel, but from Hamas/Fatah. And if th eU.S refuses to curb them, it's up to Israel to do so.

It's time to start cracking down hard on terrorism in Israel's capital. Enough.